1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing a sparkling or bubbling beverage containing a carbon dioxide, such as draft beer, into a container and, in particular, to an apparatus for forcing a bubbling beverage from a beverage tank under a CO.sub.2 gas pressure into a container in a predetermined quantity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various drinks, such as draft beer, coke and juice, are known as a sparkling, CO.sub.2 gas-containing beverage to be handled by a dispensing apparatus. Here, a draft beer dispensing apparatus will be explained below by way of example.
This type of dispensing apparatus is disclosed in Published Examined Japanese Utility Model Registration H-1-38072.
The aforementioned apparatus is of such a type that an opening/closing valve for opening/closing a beverage passage leading to a dispensing outlet can be operated, by the operator, through an operation lever so that a proper quantity of draft beer can be dispensed into a container, such as a mug.
The operator, while dispensing draft beer by hand-operating the operation lever, adjusts the extent of bubbles in the beer by varying a positional distance to the dispensing outlet of the container, such as a "height" or a "tilt" angle, by the other hand of the operator.
In this dispensing apparatus, the amount of beer to be dispensed as well as the extent of bubbles in the beer depends mainly upon the extent of adjustment by the operator, thus requiring a considerable experience.
Recently, a dispensing apparatus has been developed and reduced to practice which is of such a type as to be equipped with dispensing buttons (selection switches), in place of the operation lever, for containers of different size. The apparatus enables the dispensing valve to be opened for a period of time corresponding to the size of the container, by selectively pressing a corresponding dispensing button, so that a mugful of beer is dispensed.
This type of apparatus, like other conventional apparatuses, can dispense beer, while a container is being hand-gripped, so that a different amount of bubbles is dispensed into a corresponding mug according to how to hand-grip the mug. Opening the dispensing valve for only a period of time corresponding to the size of the mug sometimes causes beer to be overflowed out of the mug, thus requiring a higher technique in dispensing a proper amount of beer into the mug.
As well-known, a given amount of CO.sub.2 gas is contained in the draft beer and, unless being placed under a proper pressure against the temperature of the draft beer, a CO.sub.2 gas is either released or bubbled. Conversely, the CO.sub.2 gas is sometimes excessively absorbed in the draft beer, thus markedly lowering the sense of taste.
It is, therefore, necessary that, in order to dispense tasty draft beer, a gas pressure appropriate to the temperature of the draft beer be applied to the interior of a beverage tank (a storage tank) in which the draft beer is held.
The existing apparatus is, therefore, adapted to detect, through a temperature sensor, a temperature level prevailing in the draft beer tank and to display a corresponding gas pressure level on a display unit. The operator has adjusted the gas pressure acting upon the interior of the beer tank, while seeing the data on the display surface of the display unit.
The hand adjustment of the gas pressure by the operator poses a problem that doing so is very cumbersome and, in addition, is often forgotten inadvertently,